Author Topic: Sounds Familiar  (Read 3918 times)

Shinobu

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Sounds Familiar
« on: December 17, 2012, 07:23:44 PM »
So one of the only other "games" I've remained a part of over the last few years is Second Life... not really a game per se, but I have friends there and it's good to drop in on them and talk and explore.

I've also been a part of the SlUniverse forums for a long time, so I checked back with them the last couple of weeks.  I noticed a thread the other day:  "Where Did Everybody Go?"  The OP says, "Is it just me or did the population dramatically decrease in the last year?  The sim I rent is almost empty."  Replies include, "A few people have left, but not a lot" and "If you want to find people search the event forums" or "find a club, they're always packed".  And, of course, the person who says SL is now dead, just like it's been declared dead at least 50 times in the past (IE everything's just fine).

It just sounded so very familiar... SL is a platform that's been around a long time and is no longer the hot new thing and is showing its age, but people that play it don't want to admit it's on the downside of its existence.   ??? 

Mister Bison

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Re: Sounds Familiar
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2012, 08:48:42 PM »
It is still srendy, with the same people that played it when it went out. And it's still going to be for a long time, at least as long as it allows to bypass legacy taxes as "Oh, your father also wanted to give you this little paswords to a funny game, you sure you want it ?"
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beveri8469

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Re: Sounds Familiar
« Reply #2 on: December 17, 2012, 09:33:03 PM »
i miss those crazy second life stories on the MMO report. i thought those were funny and stupid
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Shinobu

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Re: Sounds Familiar
« Reply #3 on: December 17, 2012, 10:41:13 PM »
I think one big difference is that Linden Labs (so far as I know) still owns SL and is completely independent, so if they want to run it forever they can.  Just like Anarchy Online is still around, because they're a small company that has no reason to not keep it going as long as it's not losing money.

But still... I got a strong sense of deja vu reading that.

Kistulot

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Re: Sounds Familiar
« Reply #4 on: December 17, 2012, 10:52:53 PM »
There's also no way to replace Second Life.

That's part of what it comes down to. The sheer amount of content you would need to mimic alone is insane. Graphical overhauls are one thing. The user creation tools, the sheer space...

Tempts me to wing back around as I did always love playing dress up and then flying around, but all of my communities there drifted apart.
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JaguarX

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Re: Sounds Familiar
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2012, 12:43:40 AM »
What is second life like? Like a giant Sims game?

Shinobu

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Re: Sounds Familiar
« Reply #6 on: December 18, 2012, 09:47:14 PM »
What is second life like? Like a giant Sims game?

Essentially, yes.  It's the largest and most open of these kind of games (There, Sims Online, there are several others).  Pretty much everything they do is open source so people can build whatever they want and even try to make better "viewers" -- the actual program that you connect to Second Life with, there are a lot of alternatives to the official one.

JaguarX

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Re: Sounds Familiar
« Reply #7 on: December 18, 2012, 09:50:19 PM »
Essentially, yes.  It's the largest and most open of these kind of games (There, Sims Online, there are several others).  Pretty much everything they do is open source so people can build whatever they want and even try to make better "viewers" -- the actual program that you connect to Second Life with, there are a lot of alternatives to the official one.


Interesting.

Think other type of online games of the future will move to this format one day?

Shinobu

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Re: Sounds Familiar
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2012, 04:43:04 PM »

Possibly.  A lot of people thought Second Life would be the new internet.  Instead it's mostly a graphic chat room, a good place for RP (and along with that -- a nearly no-holds-barred platform for sexual roleplay) and sometimes a really neat platform for creative people to build things, similar in that respect to Minecraft.  There are ways to "game" in Second Life that are, to me, less than fulfilling.  Ideally a future game built on the same idea would allow for fans to create their own City of Heroes within the game, but you can't really do that in SL -- for one thing, allowing people to upload every texture imaginable does not allow the game to draw new areas quickly (like -- really slowly actually, you usually have to stand around for a couple of minutes for the environment around you to load).  But I look forward to what a next-generation freeform game like SL could be capable of.  Maybe ten years from now we'll be able to recreate City of Heroes on our own.




JaguarX

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Re: Sounds Familiar
« Reply #9 on: December 19, 2012, 05:02:29 PM »
Possibly.  A lot of people thought Second Life would be the new internet.  Instead it's mostly a graphic chat room, a good place for RP (and along with that -- a nearly no-holds-barred platform for sexual roleplay) and sometimes a really neat platform for creative people to build things, similar in that respect to Minecraft.  There are ways to "game" in Second Life that are, to me, less than fulfilling.  Ideally a future game built on the same idea would allow for fans to create their own City of Heroes within the game, but you can't really do that in SL -- for one thing, allowing people to upload every texture imaginable does not allow the game to draw new areas quickly (like -- really slowly actually, you usually have to stand around for a couple of minutes for the environment around you to load).  But I look forward to what a next-generation freeform game like SL could be capable of.  Maybe ten years from now we'll be able to recreate City of Heroes on our own.

yeah